Day 68 Surfer's Paradise (Wet and Wild)

Waking up was beyond difficult this morning.  I realise my age now, and that my body needs more time to recover from the rigours that I am inflicting on it.

In the past week I have experienced weightlessness to 6.8G forces, been tumbled, twisted tortured, turned, flung, dropped, catapulted, inverted, and slammed about.  I have walked marathons, climbed a mountain of stairs, carried food and drink like a pack mule, and walked tightropes and stepping stones at height above the ground.  My body is in total rebellion, and has begun to shut down with protest.

Don't get me wrong, I have loved the experience, but I am in desperate need of a spa, a masseuse and some time in my favourite chair with a book and my feet up.  Having my good mate Jack Daniels in arms reach wouldn't hurt either. 

But enough of my sooking.

Nobody had done journals or blogs today, so the first order of business was to catch up on our experiences.  The kids reacted like we had asked them for one of their livers and set about moaning and whinging.  After breakfast, Lisa went to top up the pantry and get some much need groceries whilst I continued with my epic entry from yesterday. 

Rowan finished his journal in short time, and Emma and Ashley procrastinated, fought, sooked, and did all in their power to not do theirs.  It wasn't until I explained my journal was going to take several hours that they decided they should just do what they needed to and go to the playground for their own benefit. 

Lisa and I had never had any intention of going out today before lunch, but we weren't going to let on.

After lunch we were to go to the final theme park for the week.  Ashley has been bugging us to go to Wet and Wild since we left Perth, so it was an epic day for him.  The last time Lisa and I came here, we hired wet suits for the day, but the sun came out to play and we had a nice warm 23 Deg C for the afternoon.  There wasn't even much wind about, so we were in for a pleasant afternoon.

First stop was Mammoth Falls, which is a  tube based water slide.  This ended up being pretty benign and with the kids going in front of us, Lisa and I enjoyed the ride.  They say the water is heated...but only just.

We agreed to go in search of all of the rides first, and then Ashley and Emma could do whatever they wanted for the rest of the time there.  Rowan still needed us with him for most of the rides.  He isn't very confident in the water yet.

The next stop on our way around was the Tornado.  You sit on a flat inflatable platform (Up to 4 people) and go down a near vertical drop being dumped into a huge funnel.  Momentum then carries you up the sides before you get channelled into the pool at the bottom.

This ride is quite a lot of fun, and is similar to one at Whitewater World, with the exception that you have to carry your own platform up the stairs here, where Whitewater World has a conveyor to get the platforms to the top.  They do get heavy by the time you've carried them up 8 flights of stairs.


Rowan was again 5mm too short for this ride, so whilst Lisa and the kids went on, I took him with me to the Black Hole.  Rowan really enjoyed this slide, which is in total darkness.

It didn't quite have the wow factor that I was looking for, but it wasn't too bad a ride.  Again it involved lugging a large inflatable two man tube to the top of an endless staircase.  Maybe it is to deter people from riding too many times in a row.  Not sure, but I would only ride this once today.

Our next station on our park tour was to be the Kamikaze.  Simple concept, but lots of fun.  You sit in a large inflatable boat, and they push you down the slope.  It's all up to gravity then, and you ride the half pipe until you stop at the bottom.

The height restrictions allowed Rowan to go on this, and he had a blast.  There were only two people allowed at a time, so Lisa and I walked up the steps with kids twice carrying a boat each...extremely heavy boat...to have Emma throw yet another precious tantrum and retreat to the bottom of the slide.  At least the boys got to ride twice.

Most of the really cool things in the park were shut for maintenance, or because there aren't sufficient patrons in the park.  They now have a zipline that runs the width of the park that looked very cool...SHUT.  They have a half pipe roller coaster called the Surfrider...SHUT.  the incline with water that you can static surf on called the Flowrider...SHUT.  The giant speed slide Mach V...SHUT. 

We had to go right across the other side of the park to find some more water slides to go on.  Whilst the kids went racing on the Super 8 Aqua Racer, Mum and Dad went to do the big ticket item "Aqualoop"

The Aqualoop is a bit like the Wedgie from Whitewater World with the exception that you go through a high side loop at around 45 degrees from horizontal.  This was a pretty cool experience, and I will have the bruising as a memento for the next couple of weeks. At least I can say I did it albeit once only. 

The kids had about a half dozen goes on the aqua racer by the time that we came back down to collect them.  I told Rowan we were going to go to another part of the park.  He asked me with very sad eyes if he would be able to do more rides...I told him that was the plan, and he bounced up and down for the next 2 minutes squealing with delight. 

There is so much joy to be had from a 5 year old who is getting unlimited fun time.


We went over to a series of water slides called the River Rapids.  We all had a go, but afterwards Lisa and I decided that we were cold, and Rowan wanted to come with us to the hot spas.  We left Emma and Ashley to do their own thing.

We were only in the spa a short while when we decided to shower and be down with Wet and Wild.  I was quite disappointed with this park.  Whitewater World is so much better than Wet and Wild.  Better set up, easier access to rides, and more fun.

The rides were all a bit lame to be hones...with the exception of Kamikaze and the Tornado.  Rowan came to have a shower too as he was a beautiful shade of violet from the cold.  Whilst we were showering Rowan, Ashley and Emma came to the spa looking for us.  When he couldn't find us, Ashley actually went to see if the car was still there because he thought that we had left him and Emma behind.  Maybe that will teach them for arguing all morning.

They were making plans to do some more rides when we offered to go next door to Warner Brothers Movie World for an hour so they could ride on the Scooby Doo Spooky Coaster again.  I've never seen them shower so quickly.  Emma neglected to pack pants though so we were forced to buy her a sarong at the surf shop...We shall stick that one away for the 21st I think.

Movie world is right next door to Wet and Wild, so we were through the gates with about 45 minutes of ride time for the kids.  Lisa and I checked on the Superman Roller Coaster, but it had a lengthy wait, so we just meandered up main street to Scooby Doo where we found the kids going around for a second ride.  Ashley and I went to ride on the Wild West Flume again, on which we got sopping wet today...Go figure. 



Ashley tagged onto the Scooby Doo ride with Emma and Rowan again as they went around for their third go.  Emma says that they got 5 rides in total before the ride was shut.  It was nice to see them doing exactly what they wanted for their last hour on the Gold Coast theme parks.  I hope they are memories that will stay with them for the rest of their lives. 

Lisa and I are physically destroyed.  I am looking forward to a nice long boring drive tomorrow if only to sit down for a few hours.